KevinMD's Take, November 18, 2010

Not only can a system differ between a hospital and a clinic -- there can be multiple systems within the same medical setting. One for the lab, and one for patient charts, for instance.

A medical resident, in a guest post, notes the danger to patients. "It’s not a matter of inconvenience that new providers have to learn 5
new computer systems in two days – it is a matter of patient safety," she writes. "I
continue to be amazed that despite all our advances, we as a country
have not reconciled our differences and agreed on a uniform EMR across
most, if not all, medical institutions. The benefits are many, including
the ability to consolidate fragmented/repetitive medical information,
better coordinate care and reduce possible mishaps created by each
separate system."

It's going to get better as time goes on -- but it's disturbing to see the effects of too many vendors in the marketplace, selling the products that are incompatible with one another.

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